April 19 Fire Trucks and BIG sucker!!


April 19th

The other day we realized we had never seen a fire truck while being in Russia.  That is not necessarily a bad thing because that means no fires, but as soon as we realized we had never seen one the next day one went past the office.  I didn’t have the camera ready in time, but today as we pulled into the office parking lot we heard sirens and Lewis said here comes more fire trucks, so I got out of the car quick and took a picture.  Then another one came by, took another picture.  Then we saw two police cars and three more fire trucks, I wish I had the video camera running, but I didn’t.  So here is proof that fire trucks exist in Russia.

 

Later this day we did our weekly food shopping.  While waiting in line at the checkout we saw these HUGE Chupa suckers.  I think that a picture of them has been submitted before, but this time there is a story that goes along with the picture.  Lewis picked up the sucker and asked if we had taken a picture of it before for the blog, I said I think so but not sure.  So he said we will take one just in case and he acts like he is going to lick it and I take a picture.  Then one of the security people that roam around the store came up to us speaking Russian of course and we couldn’t understand what she was saying, but we figured out that she didn’t want pictures taken in the store.  Not sure why, but it made for a good blog story anyway.  We got chewed out for something and have no idea what was said!! 

April 18 Lightbulb


April 18th

A strange picture to post, but when I saw this light bulb at one of the farmsteads it reminded me of the rooms that they put people in to question and torture them in movies…………

April 17 Wonderful


April 17th

What more can I say about today, beautiful weather and a beautiful day!!

April 15 Railroad signs


April 15th

Look at all the signs leaning up against this building that the railroad workers use


April 14 Spring is here


April 14th

Look at this upcoming forecast……..once the temperatures hit the 40’s there was no looking back!!!

 


Time to put the winter clothes away and the winter work clothes too and bring out some lighter jackets!!
 
 



 

April 13 The Whiteboard is called a what????


April 13

Lewis asked for a white board to be put in his office, this is the box that it came in and it is called a “Visual Communication Appliances”

 

Here is the Visual Communication Appliance in its appropriate spot all ready for some Visual Communication………

April 12 Brings back OLD memories


April 12th

This phone is on the wall in the lobby area of the Cheese Plant across the street from our apartment building.  It actually works, we saw someone talking on it!!  I think the sign indication “phone” needs to be there because most people wouldn’t even recognize that it was a phone, rotary dial too!!!

April 11 The Story of a Sign


April 11th

A few days ago someone from the company Lewis works with put a sign up at the entrance to the parking lot saying that only those employees working at this company can park here.  The “spa” business was not happy about that and we saw some people taking the sign down today, some employees taking pictures of this happening.  Soon after one of the maintenance people from this company went out and put it back up………..



 

The following Monday the whole pole had been removed completely, I don't think the sign is going back up anytime soon……….

April 10 The Galleria


April 10th

We used to go to the Galleria mall in Dallas Texas, saw this Galleria mall in St Petersburg, unfortunately we did not go in so I don’t know how they compare.

April 9 Wearing an udder on my head........


April 9th

When we were in Madison last October one of the companies had these pink “udder” hats.  Lewis knows these people and when he went to get me one of those hats they said they would give us one if we agreed to take a picture with me wearing it in Russia.  So when we went to the AgroFarm in February Lewis thought this would be the perfect setting for a picture.  So glad that is over with……..


April 8 A big piece of fruit

April 8th

Have you ever seen a pear this big before?  Good fruit but very odd looking!!!

April 7 A MIRACLE happened today.....


April 7th

Today the weather started out cold, but I have faith that we will get out of the 30’s today…….

Weather at 7am

 

Weather at 9am





 
 
 
Weather at 1pm




 
 
 
Weather at 3pm almost there…….

 

Weather at 4pm…..We made it…….have not seen this temp in over 5 months!!!

 

Look what is ahead for the next 10 days…….the snow will even go away if this forecast holds up.


 

 
I noticed several young and older children outside and they were building a snow wall……the bigger kids were rolling a big snowball over to the wall.  In the videos if you watch closely you can see the effort put into pushing this snowball.  Later they had a snowball fight with this supposed protective wall……….









 
 
 
 




 
 
 
 

April 6 Will it ever end????


April 6th

More snow today, and still in the 30’s!!!  Will we ever see the 40’s as forecasted???




 
 We went to eat with some of the other employees and our guest from the USA, took a picture of a fancy garnish……………
 

April 5 It is still not getting any warmer......




April 5th

Today turned out much colder and wetter than predicted.  If you think from the past several days that I am obsessed with the weather then you would be RIGHT!!!
Start of the day temperature
 
 
The temperature 2 hours later and dropping




This is as good as it will get today.......

 
Snow is fine but not when it snows a bunch and then melts only enough to make the roads a mess and dirty, then snows a bunch and repeats itself.  Plus the fact that we haven’t seen temps other than the 30’s, 20’s and below since December 1st, it is time to be spring!!!  I forgot what grass looks like…..ha ha!!!
Watch the snow progression..........




 
 
 
 
 




 
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 

    

  


 

Lewis taking the trash out before going to work
    

 
 




 

 

 



 

 

We usually keep the windows open in our apartment or we would get way too hot.  Some days we could be in trouble with the snow coming down during the night……..got some snow on our screen last night!!